Here's my baby boy, Blackie Bruce Parkins. Aptly named as you see. My pupper is the greatest dog on the face of the Earth. Alright, I'll admit I'm a touch biased, but facts are facts. He's amazing. However, the hundreds of aggressive dog breeds lists floating around the internet would have to disagree.

A goober in his natural habitat.Tania Parkins

You see, Blackie is a German Shepherd- Chow Chow mix (with possibly some pit or rottweiler thrown in, he's a country boy so we're not sure). I'm sure anyone with any familiarity with dogs knows the type of stigma these breeds carry. A simple google search of aggressive dog breed lists shows Shepherds and Chows in the top ten on dozens of suggested pages.

German Shepherds are cited as loyal to a fault and prone to over protectiveness. Basically, if you don't teach them to play nice when they're young they can be a bit too aggressive. Chow Chows are also described as protective, but seemingly a bit more sinister in their aggression, as if it is part of their DNA.

That's the problem. Dogs are being judged and stereotyped by their breeds as if they are not individuals. As if it is in their DNA to fit a violent caricature of them accepted by mainstream society. This issue came to my attention when I was apartment hunting. I did not want to sign a full year lease, so my options were greatly limited. I only found one complex suitable but there was a catch.

The banned breeds list.

My dog is incredibly gentle. It's his personality, he was truly born sweet. The reason we even took him in was because his little sister (who he had at least 40 pounds on) was beating him up and stealing his food. He was literally starving because he wouldn't do as much as nip her. Blackie simply wouldn't fight back, it wasn't (and still isn't) in his nature.

But of course, because he's 90+ pounds and obviously some kind of Shepherd mix people are still wary of him. I've had to shove my hand in his mouth on countless occasions to prove that he doesn't bite before people will even come near him. At the vet, they've given him shots, taken his blood, stitched his tail and even took a scalpel to his face with no anesthesia to drain fluid to which he never even bared his teeth.

No one cares to hear that though. They see the ears and the tail, and BAM you're banned, sweetie.

In the apartment complex, I lived in last year whenever I would walk him outside we would be greeted by the same neighbor dogs barking and lunging to get at Blackie. All of them were breeds that aren't deemed aggressive or banned from complexes/insurance companies. Even though Blackie didn't even respond to aggression, let alone start it, we were the ones who got comments on his size and how "scary" he looked.

Isn't he terrifying?Tania Parkins

The same is true at my next apartment. No matter how much I speak to Blackie's character he's still a big, black German Shepherd-Chow Chow who has no chance of bypassing the banishment. Luckily, my family is taking him in as I finish up my final semester at school, but the problem remains.

Dogs aren't "bad" because of their breed. Just like children, dogs misbehave because of how they are raised. Every dog has a unique personality, just like kids and should be raised accordingly. Once people stop looking at dogs as representations of their entire breed and instead as individuals the stigma associated around dogs and violence will shift.

Don't let the negligence and amorality of humans taint the purity of our canine companions.